Gerry Billing
Dr Gerald "Gerry" Billing was a human archaeologist. On 22 November 1963, when he was six years old, Gerry developed a psychic link to the Doctor's TARDIS after seeing it depart 76 Totter's Lane. As a result, he began seeing visions of the Doctor's adventures in his dreams. The visions caused considerable stress for his family and parents, Claire and Ray, as they did not believe what Gerry was seeing was real.
Claire gave Gerry a teddy bear he named Doctor Bear to help him with his "dreams", which he cherished dearly as he had been told the bear was a representative of the real Doctor. However, tensions in Gerry's family increased, as did money troubles, due to real-life scheming Gerry had witnessed in his visions involving murders committed by Mark Forester, the owner of the plant Ray worked at. Forester and Kenneth Meadows, Ray's immediate boss, found out about Gerry's knowledge and stole his dream journal, threatening the boy to keep his silence. Gerry was terrified, but as he did not explain what was going on, Claire and Ray did not know why he was acting the way he was, and the tension in the household increased.
The trouble came to a head in July 1967 when Gerry was kidnapped by Forester and Meadows. Gerry sent for help by tying Doctor Bear to a balloon with a note, but the stuffed toy was destroyed for good in the process. Forester and Meadows were brought to justice, but the plant was shut down, which made the Billing family deeply unpopular in Barringdean.
The Third Doctor eventually found out about Gerry, and arranged to meet him and Claire at the future UNIT HQ on 29 February, 1968. Upon hearing Gerry's story, the Doctor realized what had happened, and broke Gerry's link with the TARDIS. The Doctor also gave Gerry a new Doctor Bear and arranged for the Billings to receive a new start in Shoreditch, sending Ian Chesterton to meet Gerry and Claire after he had left.
The Doctor kept tabs on Gerry and his family for years, regularly sending him new outfits for Doctor Bear corresponding to his later regenerations. Gerry, never able to decide between history and science, became an archaeologist, specializing in the Aztecs. He married Wendy and had two daughters, Susan and Vicki, and eventually at least one grandchild, Steven. (PROSE: Imaginary Friends [+]Loading...["Imaginary Friends (novel)"])
